Document 2
AN INTERVIEW: KOREA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ OPINION OF
THE ROLE OF SHAMANISM AND FORTUNE-TELLING IN KOREA
Recorded at Korea University Graduate School of International Studies, 11 July 2000
Interviewed by: David A.G. Johnson, Jr.
Participants:
Lee Jin Woo; Lee Byul; Ryu Hojin; Kim Jin-Young; Yang In-Ho; Kim Susan
DJ: My name is David Johnson. I have been here as part of an International
Delegation of Educators working on a project to help American high school students
understand more about your culture, in Korea. One of the issues I am interested
in is Shamanism and fortune-telling, and its impact on Korea.
Susan: My name is Susan. I am 21 years old. My major is English. In Korea there are
some people who changed their name because the shaman told their mother to
change their name. If you’re a girl, she will achieve success.
DJ: Did that happen in your family?
Susan: No.
DJ: Has your family ever used a shaman?
Susan: I go to Catholic Church, so our family doesn’t go to shamans.
DJ: Have you ever heard any relative speak about shamans?
Susan: No.
DJ: What about friends? Have any friends ever spoken about shamans?
Susan: There is a Junior who changed her name.
DJ: Because of the shaman?
Susan: Yeah.
Lee Jin Woo: My name is Lee Jin Woo, and I am 21 years old. I study engineering. I am Christian,
so my family and other Christians in our country don’t believe in shamans.
DJ: What kind of Christian are you? Are you Catholic, Presbyterian?
Lee Jin Woo: I am Presbyterian.
DJ: I am Presbyterian. What do you know about Shamanism?
Lee Jin Woo: My grandma is Buddhist, but my mother converted to Presbyterianism, so I don’t
know much about Shamanism.
DJ: Did your grandmother go to a shaman?
Lee Jin Woo: Yes, my grandma honored the ancestors – forefathers.
DJ: Did they ever talk about shamans? Any friends or neighbors who visited the shaman?
Lee Jin Woo: No.
Ryu Hojin: My name is Ryu Hojin, and I am 21 years old. I have no religion. My mother and
my grandmother have religion. They are very good Buddhists, and they believe in
Buddha very deeply. They go to fortune-teller when they want to know about the
future or they think there is something wrong in my family or my country. And fortune-
teller sometimes give them the solutions to the situation. The solution is some
kind of paper, to protect them.
Byul: The paper is placed on the door to protect the family from bad spirits or evil.
DJ: You have that in your house?
Ryu Hojin: Yes, several sheets.
DJ: How much did it cost?
Ryu Hojin: It varies because in Korea there are many shamans, and they have their own price because people
believe in the power of the shaman differs.
DJ: If you are a very good shaman it costs very much. If you are no good it costs very little?
Ryu Hojin: Yes.
DJ: How can you tell if a shaman is very good?
Ryu Hojin: That can be proved by the frequency of clientele—numbers or percentage.
DJ: You said your mother and grandmother visited the fortune-teller about problems. Have they visited the
shaman to pray for you to get into the University? Did they do that?
Ryu Hojin: Of course they did that. The shaman said I will get a very good result. (Laughter). But that was not true.
Most Korean mothers and grandmothers used to go to fortune-tellers to hear about their son or daughter’s
future, especially the school problems.
DJ: Do men ever visit the shaman?
Ryu Hojin: No, no.
DJ: Why don’t men, fathers, grandfathers visit the shaman?
Ryu Hojin: Most fathers or grandfathers have their own power in the family, so they don’t want to show to their family
that they are nervous or weak. If they told us they wanted to go to shaman, it means something is wrong
with our family.
DJ: So it’s alright for women to be weak in Korean society?
Ryu Hojin: Yeah, maybe.
DJ: What about when someone is having a baby, do women go to the shaman to consult?
Ryu Hojin: Sometimes that may be because to know about the gender of their new baby. If the infant is born – they
want to know about the baby’s future, social class, and life. People used to go to shaman for many reasons,
but now they don’t believe as much, they go just for fun, maybe. Like going to fortune-teller.
DJ: I went to a fortune-teller while in Seoul, and the fortune-teller told me some things. Most of it was not
correct. But it was a lot of fun.
DJ: How many of you have had difficult times at University, tests, professors, stress? Would you go to a shaman
to help you with difficult school problems?
Ryu Hojin: Students - yes, Korean students have much pressure, but we wouldn’t visit shamans.
DJ: Why would you not go to a shaman even though you have so much pressure?
Byul: The fortune-teller doesn’t like to visit the young people. They believe young people are too young to hear
the future.
DJ: Now is this the fortune-teller or the shaman?
Byul: Fortune-teller.
DJ: So you see the fortune-teller and the shaman as the same?
Byul: Yeah, shamans say they are fortune-tellers. Many fortune-tellers live in the cities, but the shamans live
around the countryside. But they actually do the same job.
DJ: So you would never think about going to a shaman?
Byul: If I do some business, some big business if there’s some trouble, I’d visit some shaman. One of my relatives
did some business; he had his own job. He visited the fortune-teller and the fortune-teller said the
problem is you need some woman. She was the woman, and they married. They divorced, but my relatives
and I think the fortune-teller used my relative, she just used her business to trick my relative. She
used some chanting song, tapes.
DJ: Ryu, did your family think the shaman had done a good job in terms of the prediction?
Ryu Hojin: My mother and my grandmother believed, my father did not believe.
DJ: Did they ever have a kut at your house or at the shaman’s house?
Ryu Hojin: My family did not have a kut but my neighbor did.
DJ: Can you describe what happened?
Ryu Hojin: It was a very uncanny thing.
DJ: What do you mean uncanny?
Ryu Hojin: Strange and weird.
DJ: How old were you?
Ryu Hojin: I was nine years old, maybe ten.
DJ: Did it scare you?
Ryu Hojin: Maybe at first. After some time I didn’t think so.
DJ: You said she started dancing when the kut started. Did she just start dancing? How did the kut
begin?
Ryu Hojin: I can’t tell. When I entered the house the kut had already begun. But there was a ceremony table
with many foods and tools the shaman needed. There was some kind of bell or wood colors. Twenty
minutes after her dancing and speaking of the shaman, they stopped the ceremony and talked about
something I could not understand. The shaman talked with my neighbor.
DJ: You don’t know what the problem was?
Ryu Hojin: I heard the reason after the kut. My mother and grandmother talked about it. The kut was for the
neighbor’s son who had some problem – some illness. His illness wasn’t cured.
DJ: What did the shaman say would happen to the son?
Ryu Hojin:- (Laughter) Evil spirits had entered the neighbor’s son for many reasons. In Shamanism some evil
spirits can be all around. We believe our forefathers can help.
DJ: Do all of you believe your ancestors can help you today?
Students: I don’t believe.
Susan: No.
Byul: Knife on the Tomb. Pu?
DJ: You believe?
Byul: I don’t believe. She said, I would enter Korea University even though I had poor score. Sometimes
I depend on her, but I don’t believe shamans.
DJ: Do you think shamans are weird people as Ryu Hojin does?
Byul: Oh, I don’t think so. This week some program will show some Shamanism; she is actually Catholic
and has believed for ten years. She became sick, finally, she changed religion. As a shaman, she
thought heaven cured her. Nowadays, she works as a shaman or fortune-teller.
DJ: Let me ask you this, if young people don’t believe in Shamanism or religion, what do young people
believe in?
Ryu Hojin: Money and their girlfriend or boyfriend or in school. They believe their parents—Koreans believe
only in real things.
Lee Woo Jin: I read my Bible and am not sure about shamans.
DJ: What do you believe?
Susan: I go to Catholic Church, not for five years. I can’t understand God and Jesus or Bible. But last
month I experienced God’s power. My grandmother went to heaven last month; she had lung cancer.
She was in hospital for five months, but I prayed for her, my family prayed for her so I think
God helped her go to heaven comfortably.
DJ: How old was your grandmother?
Susan: My grandmother was eighty.
DJ Describe what you mean by a powerful experience.
Susan: When my grandmother died—at that moment she had a smile. Our family prayed and sang a
hymn.
In Ho Yang: My name is In Ho Yang, and I am twenty and Catholic. My family, grandmother often visits the
shaman because many troubles happened. My grandmother explored many things, for example—what happened?
Why did it happen? She visited shaman—I wondered why did she go. In Korea there is ancient shamanism
tradition.
Ryu Hojin: In Korea there are many Web sites, too, for fortune-telling. Did you know that?
DJ: No, I didn’t.
Ryu Hojin: Because young people don’t believe it entirely, but they believe a little and have fun. There are hundreds of
fortune-telling sites, and they give the people’s fortune. There is a type of Korean fortune-telling – gunhap.
It means love life – it forecasts about love life; it depends on their own birth date. Several kinds of fortunetelling
services online; it’s very popular, and one thing young people are relying more on fortune telling than
shamans in Korea. When they were young they didn’t believe in Shamanism; as they grow old they start to
believe the shaman.
DJ: When you say old, what ages are you talking about?
Ryu Hojin: It varies from individual to individual. For women it starts at twenty-five or thirty. In case of men it starts at
forty.
DJ: When you say a person is old. What age do you call a person old?
Ryu Hojin: Fifty.
DJ: So if a person is fifty they’re old in Korea.
Ryu Hojin: Of course.
DJ: Thank you all for sharing your ideas about Shamanism and fortune-telling. My students will be very interested
AN INTERVIEW: KOREA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ OPINION OF
THE ROLE OF SHAMANISM AND FORTUNE-TELLING IN KOREA
Recorded at Korea University Graduate School of International Studies, 11 July 2000
Interviewed by: David A.G. Johnson, Jr.
Participants:
Lee Jin Woo; Lee Byul; Ryu Hojin; Kim Jin-Young; Yang In-Ho; Kim Susan
DJ: My name is David Johnson. I have been here as part of an International
Delegation of Educators working on a project to help American high school students
understand more about your culture, in Korea. One of the issues I am interested
in is Shamanism and fortune-telling, and its impact on Korea.
Susan: My name is Susan. I am 21 years old. My major is English. In Korea there are
some people who changed their name because the shaman told their mother to
change their name. If you’re a girl, she will achieve success.
DJ: Did that happen in your family?
Susan: No.
DJ: Has your family ever used a shaman?
Susan: I go to Catholic Church, so our family doesn’t go to shamans.
DJ: Have you ever heard any relative speak about shamans?
Susan: No.
DJ: What about friends? Have any friends ever spoken about shamans?
Susan: There is a Junior who changed her name.
DJ: Because of the shaman?
Susan: Yeah.
Lee Jin Woo: My name is Lee Jin Woo, and I am 21 years old. I study engineering. I am Christian,
so my family and other Christians in our country don’t believe in shamans.
DJ: What kind of Christian are you? Are you Catholic, Presbyterian?
Lee Jin Woo: I am Presbyterian.
DJ: I am Presbyterian. What do you know about Shamanism?
Lee Jin Woo: My grandma is Buddhist, but my mother converted to Presbyterianism, so I don’t
know much about Shamanism.
DJ: Did your grandmother go to a shaman?
Lee Jin Woo: Yes, my grandma honored the ancestors – forefathers.
DJ: Did they ever talk about shamans? Any friends or neighbors who visited the shaman?
Lee Jin Woo: No.
Ryu Hojin: My name is Ryu Hojin, and I am 21 years old. I have no religion. My mother and
my grandmother have religion. They are very good Buddhists, and they believe in
Buddha very deeply. They go to fortune-teller when they want to know about the
future or they think there is something wrong in my family or my country. And fortune-
teller sometimes give them the solutions to the situation. The solution is some
kind of paper, to protect them.
Byul: The paper is placed on the door to protect the family from bad spirits or evil.
DJ: You have that in your house?
Ryu Hojin: Yes, several sheets.
DJ: How much did it cost?
Ryu Hojin: It varies because in Korea there are many shamans, and they have their own price because people
believe in the power of the shaman differs.
DJ: If you are a very good shaman it costs very much. If you are no good it costs very little?
Ryu Hojin: Yes.
DJ: How can you tell if a shaman is very good?
Ryu Hojin: That can be proved by the frequency of clientele—numbers or percentage.
DJ: You said your mother and grandmother visited the fortune-teller about problems. Have they visited the
shaman to pray for you to get into the University? Did they do that?
Ryu Hojin: Of course they did that. The shaman said I will get a very good result. (Laughter). But that was not true.
Most Korean mothers and grandmothers used to go to fortune-tellers to hear about their son or daughter’s
future, especially the school problems.
DJ: Do men ever visit the shaman?
Ryu Hojin: No, no.
DJ: Why don’t men, fathers, grandfathers visit the shaman?
Ryu Hojin: Most fathers or grandfathers have their own power in the family, so they don’t want to show to their family
that they are nervous or weak. If they told us they wanted to go to shaman, it means something is wrong
with our family.
DJ: So it’s alright for women to be weak in Korean society?
Ryu Hojin: Yeah, maybe.
DJ: What about when someone is having a baby, do women go to the shaman to consult?
Ryu Hojin: Sometimes that may be because to know about the gender of their new baby. If the infant is born – they
want to know about the baby’s future, social class, and life. People used to go to shaman for many reasons,
but now they don’t believe as much, they go just for fun, maybe. Like going to fortune-teller.
DJ: I went to a fortune-teller while in Seoul, and the fortune-teller told me some things. Most of it was not
correct. But it was a lot of fun.
DJ: How many of you have had difficult times at University, tests, professors, stress? Would you go to a shaman
to help you with difficult school problems?
Ryu Hojin: Students - yes, Korean students have much pressure, but we wouldn’t visit shamans.
DJ: Why would you not go to a shaman even though you have so much pressure?
Byul: The fortune-teller doesn’t like to visit the young people. They believe young people are too young to hear
the future.
DJ: Now is this the fortune-teller or the shaman?
Byul: Fortune-teller.
DJ: So you see the fortune-teller and the shaman as the same?
Byul: Yeah, shamans say they are fortune-tellers. Many fortune-tellers live in the cities, but the shamans live
around the countryside. But they actually do the same job.
DJ: So you would never think about going to a shaman?
Byul: If I do some business, some big business if there’s some trouble, I’d visit some shaman. One of my relatives
did some business; he had his own job. He visited the fortune-teller and the fortune-teller said the
problem is you need some woman. She was the woman, and they married. They divorced, but my relatives
and I think the fortune-teller used my relative, she just used her business to trick my relative. She
used some chanting song, tapes.
DJ: Ryu, did your family think the shaman had done a good job in terms of the prediction?
Ryu Hojin: My mother and my grandmother believed, my father did not believe.
DJ: Did they ever have a kut at your house or at the shaman’s house?
Ryu Hojin: My family did not have a kut but my neighbor did.
DJ: Can you describe what happened?
Ryu Hojin: It was a very uncanny thing.
DJ: What do you mean uncanny?
Ryu Hojin: Strange and weird.
DJ: How old were you?
Ryu Hojin: I was nine years old, maybe ten.
DJ: Did it scare you?
Ryu Hojin: Maybe at first. After some time I didn’t think so.
DJ: You said she started dancing when the kut started. Did she just start dancing? How did the kut
begin?
Ryu Hojin: I can’t tell. When I entered the house the kut had already begun. But there was a ceremony table
with many foods and tools the shaman needed. There was some kind of bell or wood colors. Twenty
minutes after her dancing and speaking of the shaman, they stopped the ceremony and talked about
something I could not understand. The shaman talked with my neighbor.
DJ: You don’t know what the problem was?
Ryu Hojin: I heard the reason after the kut. My mother and grandmother talked about it. The kut was for the
neighbor’s son who had some problem – some illness. His illness wasn’t cured.
DJ: What did the shaman say would happen to the son?
Ryu Hojin:- (Laughter) Evil spirits had entered the neighbor’s son for many reasons. In Shamanism some evil
spirits can be all around. We believe our forefathers can help.
DJ: Do all of you believe your ancestors can help you today?
Students: I don’t believe.
Susan: No.
Byul: Knife on the Tomb. Pu?
DJ: You believe?
Byul: I don’t believe. She said, I would enter Korea University even though I had poor score. Sometimes
I depend on her, but I don’t believe shamans.
DJ: Do you think shamans are weird people as Ryu Hojin does?
Byul: Oh, I don’t think so. This week some program will show some Shamanism; she is actually Catholic
and has believed for ten years. She became sick, finally, she changed religion. As a shaman, she
thought heaven cured her. Nowadays, she works as a shaman or fortune-teller.
DJ: Let me ask you this, if young people don’t believe in Shamanism or religion, what do young people
believe in?
Ryu Hojin: Money and their girlfriend or boyfriend or in school. They believe their parents—Koreans believe
only in real things.
Lee Woo Jin: I read my Bible and am not sure about shamans.
DJ: What do you believe?
Susan: I go to Catholic Church, not for five years. I can’t understand God and Jesus or Bible. But last
month I experienced God’s power. My grandmother went to heaven last month; she had lung cancer.
She was in hospital for five months, but I prayed for her, my family prayed for her so I think
God helped her go to heaven comfortably.
DJ: How old was your grandmother?
Susan: My grandmother was eighty.
DJ Describe what you mean by a powerful experience.
Susan: When my grandmother died—at that moment she had a smile. Our family prayed and sang a
hymn.
In Ho Yang: My name is In Ho Yang, and I am twenty and Catholic. My family, grandmother often visits the
shaman because many troubles happened. My grandmother explored many things, for example—what happened?
Why did it happen? She visited shaman—I wondered why did she go. In Korea there is ancient shamanism
tradition.
Ryu Hojin: In Korea there are many Web sites, too, for fortune-telling. Did you know that?
DJ: No, I didn’t.
Ryu Hojin: Because young people don’t believe it entirely, but they believe a little and have fun. There are hundreds of
fortune-telling sites, and they give the people’s fortune. There is a type of Korean fortune-telling – gunhap.
It means love life – it forecasts about love life; it depends on their own birth date. Several kinds of fortunetelling
services online; it’s very popular, and one thing young people are relying more on fortune telling than
shamans in Korea. When they were young they didn’t believe in Shamanism; as they grow old they start to
believe the shaman.
DJ: When you say old, what ages are you talking about?
Ryu Hojin: It varies from individual to individual. For women it starts at twenty-five or thirty. In case of men it starts at
forty.
DJ: When you say a person is old. What age do you call a person old?
Ryu Hojin: Fifty.
DJ: So if a person is fifty they’re old in Korea.
Ryu Hojin: Of course.
DJ: Thank you all for sharing your ideas about Shamanism and fortune-telling. My students will be very interested
in this window to understanding Korean culture.